Sine, Cosine, Tangent
by Dimentio
Summary: A chronicling of Sho's time in the Reapers' Game. Will later become a retelling of the events of TWEWY from Sho's perspective. Some Sho/Konishi, but not a romance fic.
1. Prologue: Day 0

**Sine, Cosine, Tangent**

I do not own the characters in The World Ends with You, nor do I own the rights to the game.

If I did, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction about it, would I?

* * *

The room looked like a New Age-y bar. The kind of bar created by a guy with too much time on his hands. There were windows on the floor, which seemed to lead to water. Sho Minamimoto decided not to question the mathematical and physical impossibilities. After all...

He was dead.

Standing in front of the bar was a thin, long-haired, sinister-looking man in equally sinister-looking sunglasses. Behind the bar was a much bigger, sinister-looking man with long white hair in his face, one golden eye, and appeared to be... preparing ramen.

Twenty chairs were strewn in front of the sunglasses man, facing in his direction. After a bit of confusion on where to sit down, Sho decided to sit next to the zetta hot blonde girl with glasses. Sounded like a good idea.

Finally, the man with sunglasses spoke. "Now, I'm sure you've realized this by now, but all of you have one thing in common. You're dead."

Sho and the girl sitting next to him already seemed to have figured it out. A lot of the others were taken by surprise. The expected amount of chaos ensued.

"Sorry if you didn't already know this..." the man apologized with a complete lack of sincerity. "But not all hope is lost. You are about to take part in The Game, an opportunity for a second chance at life. Win, and you may be granted access into the real Shibuya. Fail... and face erasure."

The man looked like he wanted to pause for dramatic effect. Unfortunately, the man behind the bar had other plans.

"Ramen's ready, sir!" The man behind the bar shouted.

"Right. Higashizawa, give a bowl to each of the players, instead of interrupting me."

The giant did just that. The ramen smelled as good as a fraction that reduces to 1, but Sho was focused on the shady man in front. If he wanted to come back to life, he had to pay attention.

Come to think of it, this was probably the first time he had ever felt it necessary to listen to a lecture. Usually, the information they provided was either irrelevant, or Sho already knew the answers.

"My name is Megumi Kitanji, the Conductor of Shibuya. The Conductor is one of the people who runs the game, second only to the Composer, who does not like to make a habit of revealing himself to Players. That's you, by the way. You are this week's Players. Every day, our Game Master will send you a text message on your cell. You have to fulfill the mission that he assigns you. If you fail, you'll be erased. Obliterated. Even more dead than you are now."

"In the UG, the 'underground,' nobody can see you except for other Players and Reapers. There are two kinds of Reapers: Harriers and Support. Support Reapers are completely harmless, they won't do anything to you. But Harriers, on the other hand..." Kitanji chuckled theatrically.

"Their entire purpose is to erase as many players as possible. If they don't, I personally erase _them_. So it's a dog-eat-dog world in the UG. But there are rules. Harriers can't attack you themselves. Only the Game Master gets that privilege, and only on the seventh day. Instead, Harriers have to sic noise on you."

Inevitably, someone raised their hand. "What's a Noise?" the boy asked.

Kitanji stuck out his arm. "This." Suddenly, a green frog with weird symbols on its back appeared out of nowhere. A few Players jumped out of their seats and backed away. The frog lunged at a random Player, and a beam of light came out of Kitanji's hand, causing the frog to vanish.

"In order to fight them, you need two things. First, you need to find a partner. Noise will automatically attack any Player without a partner, and if you don't have a partner, they're completely invincible. Second, you need a weapon. In order to fight them, you have to use pins." A couple of Players snickered at the thought of using a pin as a weapon. "Go ahead, laugh. It's hilarious until you realize that you've blown your chance at reincarnation." The players stopped laughing.

"Now, it looks like I've covered everything. Are there any questions?"

Sho quickly raised his hand.

"Yes? The kid with the baseball cap?"

Sho cleared his throat, and asked a question that had been bugging him since the beginning of Kitanji's speech.

"Wait... I've been trying to factor this out. Your name is Megumi, right?"

Kitanji nodded, although the look of despair made it apparent that he seemed to know where this was going.

Sho went on. "Isn't that a girl's name?" This, inexplicably, caused roars of laughter to come from the Players with a less refined sense of humor.

Kitanji facepalmed. "Yes... yes it is." This, amazingly, caused more laughter.

This didn't answer the most important part of Sho's question, but he decided not to push any further. Having a ruler of the underworld as an enemy was not on his to-do list.

Yet.

The blonde girl had a question, now.

Kitanji hesitantly called on her, but with a warning; "If this question has anything to do with my name, I will erase you, no matter what the Composer's rules dictate."

"My question does not concern your name. I was simply inquiring... everybody that dies has a free chance to come back to the real world, with no strings attached?"

Kitanji looked confused for a moment, then laughed. "Of course... how could I forget?" Suddenly, a gigantic blue door appeared behind him. "If you go through this door, I'll give you a Player Pin." He held up a black pin with a symbol of a skull on it. "This wonderful little gadget marks you as a Player, and guest of Shibuya's underground. But there is a price. You must wager the thing you value most. You'll only get it back if you win."

The blonde girl was still a bit confused. "I see... but what is it we value most?"

Kitanji shrugged. "It varies from player to player. But rest assured... you will know what it is when it's gone. And you will miss it. So, anybody that does not want to take that chance, you don't have to step into the door. You can, instead, opt for erasure. It's quite painless. So... time to make a choice."

About eighteen of the players stood up and walked towards the door. Two stayed behind, too afraid of what might happen if they lost.

As Sho looked upon the players walking through the door, he saw a familiar face.

That damn YOCTOGRAM! How the factor did he get here? Well... of course he was here, but...

Sho finally noticed someone tapping his shoulder. He turned around. It was the blonde girl from before.

"You seem like a strong and reasonably intelligent Player. When we go through that door, I would suggest we partner up to increase both of our chances of winning."

Sho didn't have to think about it for too long. He would need a partner, this girl seemed pretty smart (and zetta sexy), and she was asking him to be his partner.

"Well, Some Old Horses Can Always Hear Their Owners Approach! I'll pair off with you! Heh... this Game seems like it's gonna be zetta interesting. I'm Sho Minamimoto."

"And I'm Mitsuki Konishi. Well then... shall we?"

The two of them walked through the blue door together, unaware of what exactly they could lose by doing it.

* * *

Author's Note: Hope I'm doing a decent job portraying the characters' personalities. This takes place about five years before Neku's game, if anyone's interested.


	2. Chapter 1: Day 1

Sine, Cosine, Tangent

I still don't own TWEWY or its characters. No way could I ever come up with a character nearly as awesome as Sho.

* * *

When Sho woke up, he was lying face-down in the middle of Shibuya's Scramble Crossing. The thought that everything he had just experienced might have been a dream came to his mind, but only for a moment. Even in Shibuya, people would normally notice a guy lying on the street, or at least bat an eye. People seemed to stare right over Sho.

He fiddled in his pocket for a moment, and found the black pin with a skull design on it. When he looked at the pin, voices rushed in simultaneously.

"Crap, forgot to write that essay. Well, no sense worrying about it now."

"So, wait... the girl I like likes my best friend, he likes her best friend, but the friend likes CAT, and I'm not sure if CAT is one guy, twelve guys, or possibly even a girl... I hate this."

"That movie looks good... but I'm wondering whether the commercials showed all the good parts. I'll just wait for the DVD."

And other such garbage. It was clear that Sho was reading people's thoughts. Then, something hit Sho.

"Wait, does that mean that during my life, at any given moment where I was thinking something, some Player might have been listening to my thoughts?" A chill went down his spine.

This was interrupted by a vibration in his pocket. Right... the mission would be given to him through a text message. He opened his phone, and checked his inbox.

"Question: How many subjects can fulfill the mission before being erased?

Hypothesis: 12 of the subjects will survive. 2 of them will be unable to find a partner in time, and 4 will be erased by Reapers.

Materials:

1 cellular phone

1 player pin

X Pins

X Psychs

1 partner

Procedure:

1. Survive Noise.

2. Find a partner.

3. Reach 104.

Subjects have 60 minutes."

Well, it certainly was concise. A pain coursed through Sho's left hand. He looked at it, and saw a timer, slowly counting down from 60:00 downward. The mission had officially started.

Suddenly, Sho saw two familiar looking things. Green frogs covered in tatoos.

Noise. How did you fight them again? ...Right, pins. Sho fumbled through his pockets some more, and found a handful of pins, each with symbols on them.

"All right, morons," Sho taunted. "Let's see how you react when I shoot bullets out of this PIN!" He waved the pin in the air. Nothing happened. The two frogs jumped on him.

"What the... GET OFF ME!" What did he do wrong?

Oh... right. He needed a partner. Where did that Mitsuki girl go?

Sho ran to the Hachiko statue. That seemed a good meeting place. A few Players would be there, right?

Well... they were. But not the one he was looking for. Sho ran back to the Scramble Crossing. No other Players there...

Where the hell was she? Maybe she was already at 104, waiting for him?

He ran north to check... and ran face-first into an invisible wall.

"Hey. Want past this wall?" a voice behind him inquired. Sho turned around. The owner of the voice was wearing a red hoodie and baseball cap under the hood.

"Are you a reaper?" Sho asked.

"Find yourself a partner." Somehow, Sho knew he wouldn't get an answer, but he was probably right.

Well, unless the girl found a way past the wall, she probably wasn't there. He went east, to the mall district. He didn't expect to find her there, but he said that he would partner up with her, and Sho Minamimoto wasn't the sort to go back on his word.

Okay... he was, but he wasn't the sort to go back on his word to a hot girl.

Finally, he saw her. She appeared to be... staring at a wall? That didn't seem like her at all. Not like Sho knew her, or anything, but she seemed like, well... more of a cold, calculating bitch. He shouted to her.

"Hey... you're Mitsuki Konishi, right? Come on, let's form a pact. Right now."

"No... no, that would not be prudent." she said slowly. Something seemed wrong. Was she holding in tears? That definitely didn't seem like her, from what little Sho knew. "I would be... a liability to you... and my presence would make you unable to complete the Game. Just leave."

Sho grabbed her by the shoulders, and turned her around to face him. "Look, I said I'd form a pact with you, remember? Right before the Game began." Something definitely seemed wrong. She seemed to be staring right through him. "Just tell me what happened. Something's different about..."

"FINE! They... they took my vision, all right? I can't see anything. I think I remember you from your voice... you're Sho Minamimoto, right? But I can't see you. The thing that was most important to me was to be able to navigate my way through the game. But I don't even know the mission... I can't formulate any plans..."

Sho sighed. She was probably right. Having a blind partner could cause some serious problems. But it was too late now... "Look, we both need a partner. We can't get past the wall otherwise. And without a partner, we're Noise food. We don't really have a choice."

Konishi sighed. "Your funeral..." She reached out her hand. Sho grabbed it, and the pact was formed.

Sho smirked. About damn time. "Now, how about we take care of that wall?"

"Actually, how about I take care of you?" an unknown voice asked. The two players jumped, and turned around. "It's pretty sad, having to pair up with a blind girl. You really couldn't find anyone better? Oh, forgot to introduce myself. I'm Koki Kariya, a humble Reaper. And you seem to be easy points."

Sho stared at him for a while. Was that supposed to sound... threatening? The man had orange hair tied behind his head, and appeared to be holding a lollipop. Sho couldn't think of somebody less intimidating even if he tried. "Reapers can't attack players directly. That's one of the rules, remember?" Sho reminded him. Really, there was nothing to be scared of.

"Well, yeah, you're right. But I can do this." Kariya waved his hands dramatically, and something like a wolf appeared in front of him. The wolf-thing walked on two legs, and had claws that seemed big enough to rip someone in half without conscious effort.

"This could ease my boredom for a few seconds. Let the battle... BEGIN!" Kariya announced melodramatically. The wolf slashed at Sho and Konishi, but Sho grabbed her by the arm and jumped out of the way.

"Come on, use a Psych!" Sho shouted at his partner. "You might not be able to see, but you have to have something!"

"I..."

All right, so she was useless. But just having a partner at all should help him use pins, right? He tried the one with the bullet on it. He raised his hand, pointed at the wolf, and a series of energy blasts came out of his hand, and shot at the Noise. It seemed unfazed. Sho tried shooting lighting bolts, fire, and everything else he had. It did some damage, but being the only fighter made it much harder. The wolf charged at him again. Sho ducked out of the way, but it slashed Konishi, and Sho somehow felt it too.

So, this was how it would end. Sho would lose his one chance at another life because he let his hormones get the better of him... damn it. Then, he saw a movement that seemed unnatural. Konishi herself wasn't moving, but her shadow was.

Could that shadow be...? Yes, of course, it had to. "Mitsuki, your shadow! That's the key! Your shadow is your Psych!"

Konishi was confused, but her shadow wasn't. It rose out of the ground, and grabbed the wolf. The shadow grabbed the wolf, dove to the ground... and they both sunk into the concrete.

This was their chance. Before Kariya could react, Sho grabbed Konishi by the arm, and ran back west in the direction of 104.

* * *

Kariya gave a half-hearted applause, while shaking his head. "I'm impressed... looks like he was right, after all. I got two, Yodai got two, and there were two others that were erased because they couldn't find a partner in time. The Game Master claimed that his hypothesis was always spot-on. It might be that he's not just full of it... but he's still an arrogant prick." He sucked on his bean paste lollipop for a while in contemplation, then walked off.

* * *

"Pact confirmed. Wall clear!" the red-clad Reaper shouted, though nobody really noticed.

* * *

Sho and Konishi finally ran to 104. No other Reapers or Noise had attacked them on their way. Sho wasn't sure if they could survive another fight, and he wasn't eager to find out. The timers didn't seem to be on their hands anymore.

Sho, despite the fact that he was still angry at himself for partnering up with Konishi, tried to stay positive. "That wasn't too bad at all, Mitsuki! Your shadow really knows how to throw a punch! This game should be a cinch. Some Old Horses... can... horses can..." What the...

"Some Old Horses Can Always Hear Their Owners Approach, right? You told me that before the game began." Mitsuki finished for him.

"Yeah, that." Wait, what? No... there was no way.

_But of course_, a voice in his head told him. _All through your life, you only really cared about one thing. Your life was all about numbers. What else would they have taken away from you?_

It all made sense... but Sho didn't want to believe it. First, Outer... parenthesis... exponents... every mathematical formula and mnemonic that he had learned through his entire life was missing. Numbers were what defined who he was... and now they were all gone. So, what was he now?

* * *

End of Day 1.


End file.
